UK Zooming out scene

In this test piece I was focussing more on the zooming out animation so I skipped over that first part that is in the other animations which starts off with just one house, then zooms out ot the street and finally shows the path from one house to another house.

In the first test piece I still had labels attached so I got rid of those first. I was not happy with the smoothness of the first test piece so I attempted to improve that which I think I did successfully. In the first test pieces the slides would move from their original positions making the zooming out process not so smooth. So when the new slide appeared I made sure it was perfectly aligned with the previous one before it carried on the zooming out process. I also gave each slide a little bit of time to zoom out before the next slide faded in so the whole process did not become a mess like the first test piece did. When Exporting the animation I had problems with exporting it as a GIF as it automatically changed the amount of colors to a limited amount so I Re exported but changed the “colors” option from “Standard” to “256” so that the detail was not lost.

I also used a new way of drawing the roads to see if it made an improvement compared to the older versions of the roads I made. I used a faded image of just the kendal streets which I went over using the pen tool to give me a higher quality version of the streets. I then went over those paths again with the pen tool again, but I changed the color to white, added dashes to the line and I decreased the size of the lines. I also asked people for their opinions on the alterations I had made so far to the roads, houses and the animation as a whole and mostly it was positive but there was a lot of things that I need to improve according to the feedback which I either agree with or I had already noticed. From the feedback I was told that The road could use a texture or to be faded slightly into the background so it is not as bold. If I am going to use a lot of houses in the first part I need to have more a variation and that the shadows should all be aligned more accurately. Most of the people I asked liked the zooming out animation but a few people did not like how the textures on the ocean changed but a if the different textures were not so different then it would work well.

In the last test piece I did not like the look of the ocean that is on the original images so for each slide I deleted the ocean using the magic wand tool and the eraser. In its place I put a layer of just a darkish blue color and then a texture over the top of that but I then applied the “multiple” effect to the texture so that the texture was given a darker effect which I Liked the look of.

This animation is a rough Idea of how I want the next part of the animation to go. I used the last image from the previous animation but gave the map a blank green color that I applied using Photoshop. I then took a red line and did the same thing I did in the animation which shows the path from one house to another. But I do not like my use of the red line in this animation as it looks far too vibrant in this case so I would like to use dots instead with colors that fit in more with the green of the UK. From feedback that I got from this animation in particular, I was told that a texture on the UK area could look good so I would like to do that in my next test piece. In maps of the route the path bends and winds a lot which I did not involve in my line which I think would make it look better so I will involve that in the next sample as well.

I got the idea to use a map After looking at Elliot’s Lim animation that I have down below. It is the first few seconds of the animation that I am interested in mostly, Although I do like his art style through out this animation and would like to test out that style with my own ideas. In the first few seconds it shows a map and a zoomed in version which really interest me. The map as only a few colors involved in it and I like the look it has so I am going to try going to more detail in a few scenes and use this way of using tones and see if it looks just as good with my ideas. In both images you can also seen the latitude and longitude lines but they are more obvious on the second map. I like how this adds to the animation so I intend to add these to my maps. In the Second map and if you watch this part from his animation you’ll see the plane and the animated clouds which I am also inspired by. The clouds simply add more to the animation but i would like to use a aeroplane in my animation to use the trail it leaves as a space to add text which I think would look good.

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2 thoughts on “UK Zooming out scene”

Discussed FMP progress so far, very good level of practical experimentation working with Flash.

Discussed option of working with a small section of animation and concentrating on the detail and quality of the animation.

Aim to produce –
*Storyboard ideas for the whole animation, this should develop, adapt and change using feedback from peers and film tutors/students.

*From storyboard select text and image frames to develop a visual style, experiment with hand drawn, vector, colour palette and textures. Generate a range of samples to then get feedback on from peers and industry experts (Steve Scott Lavahouse)

*Select a short segment to animate, consider approaching the council to see if they want to be involved in the project?
South Lakes District Council – Go Easy Campaign